Personality

Chapter 14

What is personality?
The unique pattern of enduring thoughts, feelings, and actions that characterize a person Four Main Approaches
Psychodynamic Trait Social-Cognitive Humanistic

I. Psychodynamic approach
- unconscious intrapsychic conflicts

Sigmund Freud
Trained as a medical doctor in the late 1800s Personality is like an iceberg.
Partly controlled by the unconscious

Created the psychodynamic approach to personality

Structure and development

Id Ego Superego

Conflicts and defenses

Stages in personality development psychosexual stages

Oral Stage Anal Stage Phallic Stage
Boys: Oedipus complex Girls: Electra complex

Latency Period Genital Stage

Contemporary Psychodynamic Theories

Focus on object relations First relationships vitally important in personality development
Shapes thoughts and feelings about later social relationships

Theory seen in research on attachment

Assumptions of Trait Approach

Personality stable across time Personality stable across situations Different people different amount of traits

Traits Versus Types

Traits: Quantitative differences among people Types: Qualitative differences between people

Personality theories
Allports trait theory central & secondary traits dict terms Cattells Sixteen Personality Factors Costa & McCraes Big-Five Model of Personality

The BIG FIVE

Openness to experience artistic, curious, insightful, imaginative, original Conscientiousness efficient, oprganized, planful, reliable, trustworthy Extraversion active, assertive, energetic, talkative, expressive Agreeableness appreciative, forgiving, generous, kind, trusting, warm compassionate Neuroticism anxious, self-pitying, tense, emotionally unstable, impulsive, touchy, vulnerable

Biological trait theories

Eysenck introversion extraversion; emotionality stability Grays approach-inhibition theory

Behavioral approach system go system Behavioral inhibition system stop system

Social-cognitive approach learning, cognitive factors, learning situations

Functional analysis behavior to get reward and avoid punishment Bandura and reciprocal determinism
Reciprocal determinism how person interacts with environment Self-efficacy do you think you will be successful based on past experience?

Reciprocal determinism

Humanistic approach innate growth tendency

Things that set human beings apart from animals: self-awareness, creativity, planning, decision making, responsibility We are naturally inclined towards goodness, joy, love. Rogers self theory everyone has an actualizing tendency we give positive regard to help self-actualizing tendency Maslows growth theory deficiency orientation vs. growth orientation

Where are you?

Personality tests

objective personality tests

MMPI-2 16PF

projective personality tests

Thematic apperception test Rorschach ink-blot test